When I was still young enough to have that unshakable faith in the Christmas myth, we lived in a house that had a coal furnace in the basement and the heat it produced depended on gravity to get it where it was wanted. Needless to say, without an automatic fan or duct work to the upstairs bedrooms, gravity didn’t always produce the desired effect. The ground floor rooms had big square metal grates near the walls closest to the furnace below. These were fed the warm air through large ducts that came as straight as possible from the furnace itself.

December 10th

IOWA CITY– The West High boys bowling team knocked over Cedar Rapids Prairie Friday, Dec. 5, at Colonial Lanes in Iowa City, winning the varsity match 2,892 to 2,470.
Eric Vidhamali, a senior, set a new West High record with the highest two-game total in the history of the program with 514.
The varsity girls, led by Brooke Kreiss’ 353, fell 2,519 to 2,110. Prairie also took the junior varsity (JV) boys match 2,480 to 2,091 and the girls JV match 1,974 to 1,421.

North Liberty Leader
CORALVILLE– The West High Trojan boys swim team lost their season opening meet to the Cedar Rapids Washington Warriors, 89-81, at the Coralville Recreation Center.
Mark McGlaughlin struck a positive note for the Trojans, not only by winning the 50-yard freestyle, but also the 100-yard butterfly with a record-setting effort. McGlaughlin, a junior, won the event in 50.74 seconds, breaking the previous time of 50:77, which was set in 1994 by Mike Zimmerman.

North Liberty Leader
IOWA CITY– Mark Reiland’s West High Trojan wrestlers opened the 2014-15 season with a 51-28 win at home over the Saints of Cedar Rapids Xavier Thursday, Dec. 4.
Nathan Kelsay took a 2-1 decision from Xavier’s Ryan Williams in the 170-pound match while Donovan Doyle pinned Xavier’s Sam Meyers in 1:42 for the 195-pound match.
The Trojans are home again on Thursday, Dec. 11, as Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Jefferson visit for a double dual meet starting at 5:30 p.m.

North Liberty Leader
ANAMOSA– Clear Creek Amana’s (CCA) varsity wrestling team opened the 2014-15 season by splitting a double dual meet Thursday, Dec. 4, in Anamosa with the Blue Raiders and the Stormin’ Pointers of Center Point-Urbana (CPU).
The Clippers beat Anamosa, 46-36, but fell to the always-tough CPU crew, 47-33.

IOWA CITY– The West High Women of Troy remained perfect in the early part of the season with a 4-0 record after knocking off Mason City, Davenport Assumption and Cedar Rapids Prairie.
The fourth victim of B.J. Mayer and his team was Dubuque Hempstead, which fell 53-33 at West High Friday, Dec. 5, in a Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) match-up.
Mikaela Morgan led West High with 12 points in an offensive effort that saw 10 players putting up points. Grace Tafolla was the only other West player in double digits with 10 points.

TIFFIN– The 2014-15 Clear Creek Amana (CCA) boys varsity basketball squad is a veteran team, and they showed their stripes in the season opener against West Delaware.
The Clippers won 65-55 Tuesday, Dec. 2, to start the season on a winning note after battling for nearly every point.
“There were so many peaks and valleys in that game,” coach Steve Ottoson said afterward.

New restaurant to reintroduce North Liberty residents to Italian favorites

NORTH LIBERTY- For Gregg Mirabito, family and food go hand-in-hand.
During the holidays, the Mirabito clan often gathers together for what he called “an Italian Christmas,” where the kitchen is filled traditional Italian favorites, like spaghetti and savory meatballs or daughter Lindsey’s, favorite; shrimp scampi with linguine.
“I tried to change it one year to something like prime rib,” Greg recalled. “It was not well-received.”
Now, Gregg has brought that home cooked goodness to North Liberty with his new restaurant, “Mirabito’s,” located at 40 Sugar Creek Lane.

TIFFIN– Deck the halls in December for Tiffin’s holiday decorating contest. City officials will judge the best-dressed homes for the holidays, with prizes awarded for first, second and third place. All dwellings– single family, multi-family homes and mobile homes– will be viewed and are eligible to win.